简短报道

One of the South African favorites to take top honors at this year’s Absa Cape Epic, Kevin Evans, and his Austrian Marathon Champion teammate Alban Lakata won the first stage of the race Sunday.
The Team MTN Qhubeka/Topeak  Ergon duo finished at 4:35.41 on the day, a 3 minute and 26 second lead over Christopher Sauser and Burry Stander who came in at 4:39.07. In third place were the Rabobank-Giant Off Road team of Emil Lindgren and Fabian Giger in a time of 4:39.56,4, followed by last year’s overall winners Karl Platt and Stefan Sahm of the Bulls 1 Team (4:40.17,8). The Flückiger brothers, Lukas and Mathias of Trek World Racing, finished fifth (4:40.22).
“Normally my first day is not a good one, but obviously we got a few things right today,” said Evans. “It was a roller coaster ride, and I even had a puncture, but we kept it together with Alban saying it’s never over until it’s over.”
South Africa’s Burry Stander, the reigning U-23 World Champion, said it was not a good day for him.
“I felt ill. It was difficult to hang on to the guys in front. I also had cramps in my legs on the railway line, but luckily a bad day is normally followed by a good one,” Stander said. “I hit a very fast pace from the beginning as riding in a pack in the technical sections with lots of sand and gravel is particularly difficult.”
Stage one saw 1,200 mountain bikers start the Absa Cape Epic with a rude awakening at the Diemersfontein wine estate, just outside of Wellington. Steep climbs gave them an early taste of some forest singletrack, with the finish in Ceres.

第一赛段报道

http://www.cape-epic.com/news.php?news_id=151

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